Quantity Surveyor Review

EC Harris were a great company to work for, I enjoyed the work I was given and got on well with the people I worked with.

For a Placement Student with no previous experience of the role I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I was given tasks to work on by myself. This made me feel as though I was trusted by my colleagues to be competent in the role.

If ever I needed assistance or guidance with anything, whether related to the role or not, I could speak to me Team Leader / Manager who was always happy to help or offer advice.

After an initial period of settling and once I began to know the Projects I was working on and the people in the office I was kept pretty busy. Like all jobs there were days when it could be quiet but there were also periods where I may have needed to work late to meet a deadline. All in all I felt that most of the time I would be busy without being overworked.

As could be expected the level of responsibility I was given increased as the year progressed as my familiarity with the role improved. After a couple of months I was trusted to attend site meetings by myself and after 5 or 6 months I was trusted to undertake valuations and submit cost reports.

Quantity Surveying is a vocational degree but you can only ever learn the theory of what the job entails, therefore to work in industry with EC Harris for the year gave me hands on experience in the day to day role of a QS. The tasks that I carried out every day have assisted me already in my final year at Universty and will equip me with the skills required for my career in industry.

I found the office to be busy with people working or coming and going for meetings which I felt gave the impression that there was always something going on. I got on well with the people in my team and my sector and I felt we could always have a laugh and a joke at our desks, so whilst we were busy I never felt like we had to be serious 100% of the time.

The role of the placement was fairly well organised although there was no specific training or induction for all placement students.

My personal training was job specific so I was trained in software that I needed to use on a day to day basis such as CADMeasure. I was given help to enrol in the RICS to work towards my APC which EC Harris paid for and was assigned a supervisor to offer help and advice on the process.

Excellent. I was offered a position with the company when I graduate and I could see around the office that if you worked hard and were competent then there were opportunities available to everyone.

I was never introduced to any other placement students but there was a good social scene with colleagues. There were plenty of opportunities to socialise with colleagues including team events twice a year, smaller events every few months and a free bar every week which people could use for an hour or two to unwind.

I lived and worked in London so rent and travel were expensive, as was food and drink.

Although Lonon is expensive, there is always something to do and it was never too far away. In the area I worked there were a few bars and restaurants to have a drink or something to eat but if you wanted to go to somewhere a little busier with a bit more of an atmosphere then 10 minutes on a tube and you could be in a number of different places around London.

There were all sorts of sports teams such as Football & Netball.